Commons ethics committee won’t hear from commissioner on SNC-Lavalin affair; Ottawa keeping a close watch on protests in China

Liberal MPs on the Commons ethics committee have blocked an opposition attempt to hear from ethics commissioner Mario Dion.

Only one of the six Liberals on the 10-member committee supported the Conservative motion to have Dion testify about his scathing report into Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s handling of the SNC-Lavalin affair.

Ottawa keeping a close watch on protests in China

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the government is closely monitoring pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong and China’s response to them.

There are about 300-thousand Canadian citizens in the semi-independent Chinese territory. Trudeau says Canada will seek dialogue with China but won’t back down in its defence of Canadians against what he calls an increasingly assertive global power.

Several experts want the Canadian Armed Forces to launch a campaign to identify members of hate groups

Several experts are calling on the Canadian Armed Forces to launch a campaign to identify and screen out members of hate groups.

They say the military isn’t taking the issue seriously enough and is adopting a wait-and-see approach rather than actively weeding out extremists. The Defence Department says the military takes reported incidents very seriously and that it uses interviews and background checks to screen recruits for hateful beliefs and behaviour.